Nigel Farage Advisor Tied to Russian Oil Profits Via Orban-Backed Influence Operation

Nigel Farage’s senior advisor in charge of developing policy for a future Reform UK Government sits on the board of an organisation financed by a pro-Kremlin Hungarian state-funded body dedicated to breaking up the EU – and tied to Russian oil.

Professor James Orr, who was appointed last October as a senior advisor to Farage, is also a director of the UK arm of the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation (RSFL). 

A recent investigation by the Good Law Project found that the organisation has received over half a million pounds – more than 90% of its funding – from the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a Hungarian private college that is itself funded partially by the proceeds of refining Russian oil.  

The RSLF promotes the worldview of the late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton. Its primary funder, the MCC, is backed by the Hungarian state, and staffed by individuals close to Hungary’s pro-Kremlin illiberal ruler, Viktor Orban. 

The MCC is a collection of research institutes and “universities” in Hungary and other European countries designed to promote the interests of the Hungarian state. It has been accused of producing pro-Fidesz (Hungary’s ruling party) propaganda and extending Orban’s influence across Europe. 

The endowment funding the MCC, and thereby also funding the RSLF, is partially derived from a 10% stake in the multi-billion euro Hungarian energy giant MOL Group – which refines mostly Russian oil.

According to the German news network ZDF, in 2023 MCC’s stake in MOL group delivered the university €50 million through dividends. 

MOL group’s own website reveals that the MCC retains a 10% stake in MOL as of the latest reporting on 30 September 2025. There is no evidence that MCC has sold its stake since then. 

Farage’s top policy advisor, in other words, sits on the board of an organisation – the RSLF – whose income is downstream from Russian oil profits. 

Reform UK has been dogged by allegations of being close to Putin since its former Welsh leader, Nathan Gill, was convicted of accepting bribes from pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarchs. Not a single Reform MP attended a debate in the UK Parliament this week on Russian interference in British politics.

---

The Hungarian Connection

Orr has praised the staunchly pro-Putin position of the Hungarian Government regarding Ukraine. Speaking at an event hosted by the MCC in August 2025, Orr said of the country, which has blocked EU military aid packages to Ukraine, and sanctions on Russian oligarchs, “I salute the Hungarian approach to this from the very beginning. It’s taken exceptional courage, diplomatic skill and caution and prescience to navigate this issue over the last three years”. 

Hungary is regarded as a pro-Kremlin anomaly within the EU, continuing to purchase and refine Russian oil, and pushing for delays on sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The RSLF enjoys a close relationship with Orban’s Hungary as a result of the funding. The RSLF’s 2025 symposium was hosted at the Hungarian embassy in London and was attended by at least one representative from the Hungarian energy ministry, according to the Good Law Project. 

The MCC appears to have ambitions that increasingly stretch beyond Hungary’s borders, opening a branch of the institution in Brussels in 2022, and in Vienna in 2023. 

In March 2025, the MCC published a policy document called ‘The Great Reset’, which proposed either radically reforming or breaking up the EU – citing issues such as abortion laws as a reason for the proposed reforms. 

Billionaires Against Democracy

This is not the first time an institution of which Orr is a board member has taken funding from controversial sources. 

Last year Byline Times reported that the Edmund Burke Foundation (EBF), of which Orr is the UK chair, had taken $25,000 from the Howdy Doody Good Times Foundation, the philanthropic outfit owned by billionaire Charles Haywood, who has openly advocated against democracy and praised the Spanish nationalist military dictator Francisco Franco who killed up to 400,000 people in the 1940s.

Byline Times also revealed in 2021, that Orr had hosted the notable American populariser of ‘scientific racism’ Charles Murray to speak at Cambridge University. Orr had also convened a group of anti-liberal academics – presided over by a senior official working for the pro-Trump billionaire and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel – to create a “free speech network” in order to defend radical right ideas. 

Thiel, like Haywood has argued against democracy for its supposed suppression of liberty. In 2009 Thiel wrote an essay in which he said “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.

Thiel gave a lecture against diversity hosted by the RSLF in 2023 and was hosted again recently by Orr to give a lecture in which Thiel speculated on the identity of the anti-Christ.

The Good Law Project investigation also revealed that the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation had taken money from Donors Trust, a ‘Donor-Advised Fund’ in the US which allows donors to give to right wing causes, whilst obscuring their identities. Byline Times reported in 2025, that the Orr’s EBF had also received money from Donors Trust. 

Reform UK were approached with a request for comment.